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I don't care if I've done this before, I feel like a first-time parent all over again.

After giving birth for the first time, many seasoned moms tried to make me feel better about the prospects of continuing our family with the words, "Don't worry, you'll forget" - meaning the memory of the pain dwindles and is far overshadowed with the joy of parenthood. I would, by the way, say this was overall true. What they failed to mention was that the labor pains were not the only first steps of parenting one forgets. With every new stage our beautiful toddler enters, I tend to forget that she was ever anything different than what she is now. I cannot fathom a time when she didn't run to the door to greet daddy, let alone back to the day we were thrilled that she lifted her head an inch off the floor.

Therefore, being at these beginning stages all over again is like starting fresh. Which isn't always helpful. Like when he won't stop crying. Let's tackle that for a minute. Our little Caiah Bear was the most mellow child on the planet. In fact, when she's had a good nap, she still generally is. She rarely cried unless it was right at feeding time or I'd just let her fall off my lap and land on her head (not that that ever happened . . .). I've told people over and over again that if this second one cried I wouldn't know what to do. And I was right.

I do remember one night, only days after bringing Micaiah home from the hospital, I was frantically working my way through "On Becoming Babywise" (a book I thoroughly recommend to ANY parent), which discusses scheduling and the like. Meanwhile, Micaiah is laying in her pack 'n play screaming her little lungs out, Philip looking at me asking, "What do I do?!" and me crying back, "I don't know, I haven't gotten to that chapter yet!"

I had that same moment yesterday - Emmett screaming with all he had while laying on the floor, me IMing Philip, "What do I do?!" and all the time thinking, "Shouldn't I know this already? Haven't I done this before?"

Truth be told, I have no idea how we got Micaiah to where we are today. Somehow, one day after the other of fumbling through this parenting thing we got to today - a fairly well-adjusted, semi-obedient nearly-two-year-old. Thus, I know that somehow, one day after another of continuing to fumble through life we will make it to fairly well-adjusted, semi-intelligent adults - even if we couldn't tell you how we got there.

Here's praying, anyway.